Different ways of looking at Italy's culture when museums, opera houses and orchestras are now closed to the public.

Italy's museums, concert halls and opera theatres have now geared up to give us the best of themselves and their collections, even though their traditional locations are shut to the public. This involves not just images from the artworks in their collections but also talks by some of the expert staff in charge of each department. There are exciting new initiatives, and if we make the most of what is on offer we shall have a much closer relationship and appreciation of these organisations when they re-open.

Many of these you can find on Instagram feeds. If you are already an Instagram user you just need to search for the organisation and "follow" and then you have automatic access to its short videos from IGTV. Or you can search on their websites. 

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There is so much that it is difficult to know where to start. We have already highlighted what S. Cecilia is doing and many of the other organisations have similar initiatives, giving us a glimpse of their organisation and what they are doing even when the museum, opera house or orchestra is closed.

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The Galleria Nazionale has a lyrical #iorestoacasa section by Cristiana Collu, who is the director of the gallery, called The Time is Out of Joint, with echoes of Shakespeare's Hamlet and T.S. Eliot's The Love song of Alfred Prufrock. This is a reflection, to a background video of works in the gallery's collection, of just how out of joint the present time is and how we shall need both distance and time to reflect and understand what is happening to us now. But it is also a time of new beginnings, and of new adventures. In the last line the director writes: "And we too must go to what awaits us by trying to plan that part of the future that is still in our hands. E dobbiamo andare anche noi a nostra volta incontro a quello che ci aspetta provando a progettare quella parte di futuro che è ancora nelle nostre mani." 

The video is by Monkey VideoLab

La Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea houses Italy's national collection of 20th century art. lagallerianazionale.com